Gardening Question - Growing Wegetables

[User]

 

[The Jogger]

It should be ready to plant up, people normally rough dig an allotment now and the frosts break down the clods to a loam.

 

[welsh dragon]

Yes I agree. It should be ready by next spring.

 

[dellzeqq]

[QUOTE 2730528, member: 9609"]I'm in the process of creating a raised bed for growing vegetables, The soil for the bed is going to come from a path that I am going to create across the lawn.

If I just dig out the turf and turn it upside down into the raised bed, then cover it with soil and some well rotted cow muck - will it be ready for growing stuff in next spring. - will the turf have rotted down sufficiently?
[/quote]I'm going back thirty years to the self-sufficiency on the farm days, but in my experience the deeper you dig the first time the better the yields. I'd cover the raised bed with black plastic, and then plant something like potatoes for the first crop.

What are you using for the sides of the raised beds?

 

[welsh dragon]

Sorry im not saying your wrong, but don't they usually advise you to plant potatoes to break up the ground. If it has already been dug over, he may not need to do that. ?

 

[welsh dragon]

 

[The Jogger]

If I was doing new raised beds I would use a weed free top soil in them and build up with organic matter. I think the OP was on about the breaking down of the turfs he was putting I the bottom.

 

[Pat "5mph"]

Ime your method will yield ... lots of weeds!

 

[Pat "5mph"]

If I was doing new raised beds I would use a weed free top soil in them and build up with organic matter. I think the OP was on about the breaking down of the turfs he was putting I the bottom.

Well, they don't break down, just sprout weeds galore

 

[dellzeqq]

[QUOTE 2730567, member: 259"]It wll be full of weeds. Do as Del says and plant through plastic mulch (courgettes and pumpkins are also good).

Or think sod it and let the weeds grow and use some roundup before you plant.[/quote]
mulch was the word I was trying to remember. And how could I have forgotten - it has the most wonderful sound to it. I'm rolling it around, along with 'turf', 'dibber' and 'manure'. Which, by the way, used to mean 'work with the hands'.

 

[The Jogger]

Well, they don't break down, just sprout weeds galore

http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/grapevine/new-shoots/another-raised-beds-question_31224.html

 

[biggs682]

should be fine

 

[Pat "5mph"]

http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/grapevine/new-shoots/another-raised-beds-question_31224.html

Maybe my beds were not deep enough, grass just kept growing from upside down
Some of my "uprooted" grass still grows 2 years after, well, being ... uprooted and left to rot in a corner

 

[Puddles]

Do not plant pumpkins... they are like triffids I swear those things grow their vines at a rate faster than anyone can cycle! I gave in to demands of small people to grow pumpkins one year and we had to take the "baby" pumpkin plants to a friends farm as they went mental all over the place. The did grow a big pumpkin for Halloween though!

I like growing Dwarf French Beans, they are so easy, along with basil and rocket and coriander!

 

[dellzeqq]

it does depend on the grass. If it's a fine-leaved fescue then you should have no problem - particularly if you have kept it mown short. If it's ryegrass then it may well keep on coming.